Contact: rdlvcs@rit.edu
PI: Richard D. Lange
I am an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at RIT, with additional appointments in the Cognitive Science PhD Program and the Center for Vision Science.
I want to understand how the brain works and use that understanding to create more capable machine learning and AI systems. My interests have bounced back and forth over the years between computer science, neuroscience, AI, machine learning, and philosophy of mind.
Here's a bit about how I got where I am now:
2013: BA in Computer Science and Engineering at Dartmouth College. Near the end of undergrad I fell in love with the idea of building intelligent systems inspired by how the brain works.
2014-2015: Started a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Rochester. Eventually realized that building "brain inspired" AI means we first need to understand brains.
2015-2020: PhD in Brain and Cognitive Science at the University of Rochester in the lab of Ralf Haefner. Studied visual perception both in theory and in humans and monkeys through the lens of Bayesian inference.
2020-2023: Postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania in Konrad Kording's lab. Studied deep neural networks and structure in the kinds of internal representations they develop.
2023 Started as Assistant Professor of Computer Science at RIT
New and ongoing research areas – get in touch if you're interested in any of the following!
Improved self-supervised representation learning with uncertainty quantification*
Improved measures of representational similarity for neural data*
Improved general-purpose black-box statistical inference*
Information processing with stochastic neural networks*
Improved mathematical frameworks for uncertainty quantification and information-processing
Causal world-models and counterfactual learning
* I am actively recruiting new PhD students for Fall 2025 in these areas!
* Some opportunities for MS and UG students to get involved in these areas
How to get involved
Current RIT MS or UG students
Reach out to talk about possible thesis or capstone projects. It's common and encouraged to do an independent study first so you can spend 1 semester learning background material and 1 semester doing your project.
Reach out early! My schedule fills up quickly.
Paid RA positions are not currently available, but might be in the future, pending funding.
Apply to do a PhD
Note: availability for 2025 start depends on grant funding, which is TBD.
Finding the right PhD program means not just finding a research area you're interested in, but also finding a program and an advisor you'll get along with. If you're interested, please apply to the RIT GCCIS PhD program or the Cognitive Science PhD program and mention my name in your application.
As is the case with many PhD programs at other institutions, funding for PhD students is guaranteed for the first year and contingent on external grant funding – either to the lab or to the student directly – going forward. While it is very unlikely that funding issues would arise, I feel it is important for prospective applicants to be aware of what goes on behind the scenes and the small but real possibility that funding issues do eventually arise.
Past research highlights
Understanding neural representations
Vision as Bayesian inference
Improving inference algorithms
Inference dynamics during decision-making